I am here in cold and rainy Munich, back for my second trip to Prix Jeunesse.

My favorite part of the screening so far? The Guessing Games. The Guessing Games are short quizzes interspersed throughout the program screenings.

In advance of Prix Jeunesse, producers from 29 countries showed TV series clips to 469 kid viewers to gauge their reactions to different scenarios. The producers captured the kids’ reactions on video. We in the audience at the event are then shown a clip. Then a slide comes up asking us ‘Who thought this clip was funny – boys, girls, both, neither?’ Or ‘Where did viewers watching the boy dancing get up and try to do the dance – Asia, Latin America, Europe?’ Audience members try to figure out, based on our surprisingly limited knowledge of kids in other countries, who would laugh or dance. Additional clips follow, letting us know the answers.

The footage is funny and sensitive and it reminds us how kids all over the world are so similar and so completely different at the same time. It makes me wonder about how kids all over the world react to shows I’ve worked on and how I don’t have a clue how shows are interpreted internationally. It’s good to be reminded of that sometimes.